Family, client and friend have been afflicted with illnesses. I faced the subject of death on many levels and were reminded what a precious opportunity that I have to spend in this world.

This year, me and my Assistante continued our exploration of our curiosity in Italy, for the third time. And this time, it began with tears, tears of hurt and disappointment (a little bit of what happened here). Luckily, we did not let that incident put a damper on our trip androse above the circumstance. Our love for this wonderful country and its people not only stayed, but grew.

Speaking of exploration, we are still at loss on how we ended up going to a part of the world that we never thought we'd be willingly stepping on - the Antarctica. We have learned so much about the beauty of this continent, and about ourselves, especially of our ever-expandable limits. Thanks to the other-worldly challenges that we had to deal with, we have become both physically and mentally stronger. I feel that we are more open to getting out of our "comfort zone", which used to represent moderate temperatures.

Friends, when you are immersed in the joy of family and friends this holiday season, I want you to know that I appreciate your being you, from a liking of our post, to a comment of how you feel about our work, to the supportive words sent to my email, to even taking the time to share our posts/website to your family and friends. For that, I thank you!

In case you haven't noticed, our newsletter is turning one! Without all my engaged audience like you, it wouldn't be this grown up. And some of you have received a special thank-you in the (snail) mail. You know who you are. :-) If you are reading this and wonder what I'm talking about, the first step in becoming my VIPs next year is to sign up with our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/_-A9v. :-)

Now it's time to have that toast with my family. With my renewed license in this world, for every additional day of my life, I will strive to share beauty, spread love and inspire changes. And I look forward to seeing you along.

The holiday season is quickly drawing to an end. Can you believe it? Only 11 days to make selections for the important ones in your life (let alone the time needed to package and even mail it). And your feet are hurting from all the walking and searching. If you are among the lucky ones, your eyes are red from staring at the computer monitor too long. And worse, you are at loss for what perfect gifts to pick for the very loved ones. No sweat (not easy to sweat in winter :-)), we have an easy and elegant solution for you - the photography gift card! All you need is 5 minutes of your time and we will take care of the rest. Time is limited though if you want to make sure the "beautiful item" arrives before the Christmas dinner.

Go make your purchases here. And the person that receives it would thank you (I mean, really). Who wouldn't love a piece of art on their wall, made out of their family, especially their babies' portraits?

Hurry before the cards run out. Just 5 minutes will allow you to chill out for the rest of the "shopping season" and look like a hero (with good taste) on the "big day". :-)